Travel Support Thursday

Travel Thursday, travel Thursday.

Welcome back once again to another episode of Travel Support Thursday.

Hi.

We are here in Bangkok, Thailand.

Yeah.

And we got some pretty interesting stuff to talk about today.

I just got done getting poked and prodded and honestly cared for from a medical perspective

more than has ever happened before in my life.

It was almost an uncomfortable level of caring about my well-being.

And don't worry, for those of you that are worried, everything's good.

It was just a wellness check.

What would you call it, like a physical?

Yeah, so I have never really had a primary care physician in my entire life.

So to say that I've had a regular checkup would be a lie.

So this was like my first time ever really getting a checkup.

So I figured I'd do all of it.

And you decided Bangkok was the right place.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard good things.

I heard good things.

OK.

So today we're going to talk all about your experience, which I'm also really

fascinated about because you just got back.

And we're going to answer a couple of your questions about Google Voice,

how to keep your phone number while traveling abroad,

and how to deal with proof of onward travel when you're traveling between countries.

Like if you keep going from country to country,

how do you prove to that country you're flying into that you are eventually going

to leave that country and go somewhere else and not just like move in and live there?

That thing.

That thing.

OK, so let's get to it.

The first question, let's just answer that one, because I think it's a really

it's a really common question that we get, especially from those of you who want

to maintain your flexibility while traveling and want to be able to kind of

just like see where you go as you travel.

How do you handle this?

So our first question comes from 777 PAA, 777 PAA, who says,

out of the new channel, just started following you and enjoying immensely.

Thanks so much.

One question I have on full time travel is how everyone manages to enter a country

without knowing where you are going next.

Don't countries require an exit ticket as part of entry requirements would love

to know how this works, as I would love to learn how to be more flexible and not

have everything planned out to the day.

Yeah, so the answer to this is yes, absolutely.

Countries do require you to have proof of onward travel or proof of exit.

And the way that this normally shows up is like you booked round trip flights

from wherever you are in your home to Tokyo and then back.

And what the airlines see then is like, oh, OK, this person is planning on returning

back home. They're not just going to move into Japan or just like kind of like

disappear and travel nebulously.

So because there are rules against that.

There are indeed. There are indeed.

OK, so the basic problem here is that when you're traveling like we are,

we're normally going from like one foreign country to a different foreign

country to another one to another one.

And we're not always planned out like where we're going to go next when we

arrive into this country, especially when you're taking a full year off.

It's hard to predict and especially when the rules are constantly changing

when entry and exit requirements.

Yeah, all the time.

All the time, this is a struggle for us just trying to figure out how exactly

to book this like onward flight to make the country happy and not actually

have to commit to it at all.

So there are a bunch of different services out there that provide fake

ticket bookings and they look real and even have a real P and R,

which is like a pointer number record.

I think is what that stands for.

I'm probably wrong.

So this service will cost like 15 to 20 dollars per ticket that you book.

And it's just a fake flight.

That's a fully fake flight.

But I would really, really not recommend using this for a bunch of different reasons.

One, if you're flying with any sort of real airline and, you know,

the difference like if you think in your mind when I say that's not a real

airline, whatever you're thinking of, that's the one.

But if you're flying with any of those like real airlines, they're going to

check this record.

They're going to check this record and this is going to fall through.

And how do I know this?

Because I have done this and I have screwed up before.

Yeah.

And what happens then, if they see that you don't have like proof of

honor travel before you get on the plane, they just will not let you check in.

If you don't have something booked before you step on the plane that shows

that you're leaving the country to go somewhere else, you're just going to be

standing there in line at check in, hurdly booking in probably a very expensive

flight showing that you're flying somewhere else.

Now, a lot of you might think, well, how often do they really check?

Is this the thing that they actually do for every single person?

And we will say in the experience that we've had in the last couple of years,

not everybody does their check, but it's not, it's definitely not worth

risking for the one time that they happen to check.

And either you're getting checked right before you actually check in for your

flight before they even let you into the airport, or you're getting or upon

arrival by immigration, and that's the worst place to be found that you don't

happen.

So what's the solution?

How do you solve this problem?

If you don't really know where you're going next, how do you have a flight

book, but something that in case you change your mind, you don't lose all your

money on it, right?

So there are a couple of sites like orbits is one of these, for example,

that allow you to have a 24 hour booking window to then get a full refund on

whatever flight you've booked.

So if right before you get on the plane or maybe like, you know, the night

before a couple hours before you just like say, okay, I'm flying to Tokyo and

then I have no idea where I'm going next, I'm just going to use this orbits

24 hour policy to book a flight from Tokyo on to let's say South Korea or

something like that for like $50.

And then once you pass through the check in and the immigration and you're in

the country, then you just go back onto there and cancel the flight.

And this is also true for using points, for example.

And this is the most common way that we handle this is when we have a bunch

of chase points or United, whatever points that we have, we can look for,

we, we can look for flights that we might reasonably take.

And oftentimes we usually end up taking them, but booking armor flights

using points is a really flexible way to do this because more often than not,

you can cancel these flights and you can get your points back or you can

change them without any charges.

Yeah, American Airlines is the perfect place for this.

We always keep at least like a hundred thousand American Airlines points

that we refuse to spend anywhere else because, because their award

cancellation policy says that you can cancel it anytime before the flight

leaves and they will refund all the booking fees as well as all of the

points that you use to actually like get the flight.

So we'll just do the same thing that we, that we would do with orbits as we'd

like book a flight using points on American Airlines.

And then right after we're actually in the country, we just cancel it.

And then or keep it or keep it sometimes or change it.

Yeah, but I mean, that's, that's how you solve it.

It is, uh, I would say annoying to have to deal with this constantly

and have to keep thinking about this, but from the country's perspective,

I totally understand why they require it just to kind of keep an eye

on everyone who's in their country and to make sure that they understand

that their intentions are actually for tourism and not just for like moving

in or for doing weird business stuff or any other things that people do

when they travel that they shouldn't be doing.

Yeah, what's the phrase like when you've overstayed your welcome?

That's it.

Oh, that's the phrase.

Okay, you don't want to overstay your welcome.

What a magical moment.

This is the first time Lisa has ever gotten a common phrase correctly.

Just, uh, you're like, look a horse in the gift mouth.

No.

Look a, look a, look a gift in the horse.

That's not correct.

Don't give someone a horse as a gift.

How many rules of thumbs?

Two rules of thumbs?

How many thumbs does everybody got?

How many rules?

How many thumbs?

She constantly gets these common phrases wrong, but you got one right.

Nice.

Nice, high five.

Don't overstay your welcome.

Beases are very important to follow.

Keep those entry requirements.

The other thing that we've noticed too is different countries do different things.

I mean, depending on where you are, you can also, if you don't have a flight,

you can use ferries.

Like we went to, where was it?

We went to somewhere.

South Korea.

We were some, yeah, we were, I think when we went to South Korea last,

they were asking for our, you know, exit itinerary.

And we happened to be looking at a, as we happened to be looking at a ferry

from South Korea to Japan.

And so we had a reservation, but we didn't have to pay for that reservation yet.

And so we were able, we were even able to show that reservation to show that,

hey, we do have a way out.

So in the end, we ended up not using that reservation and taking a flight out anyway.

So lots of different ways to handle this train reservations, flights.

And for those of you that don't have points, it's also very common for people to just

book what they call throwaway flights.

Unfortunately, wasteful and, you know, it costs some money, but there are a ton of

not real airlines that run all the time for very cheap fares between different countries.

So if you're in a bind, that's also a possibility.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's all about showing intent, like upon arrival of the countries,

you're basically showing with proof that you have intent to eventually leave.

You have intent not to overstay your welcome.

Yes, yes.

And that the entirety of the time that you're going to be there,

you're going to be doing tourist stuff and that you're not there for any other

weirder reasons that sometimes happen.

That's all it's about.

We totally get this scenario.

You want the flexibility to be able to travel freely and say,

yeah, I want to go to this country or depending on the weather, depending on what changes occur,

you want the flexibility to go to different places.

I think we've just now started thinking of these like onward bookings as just one of the like

taxes, taxes that you have to pay for the luxury of travel.

So hope that helps answer your question.

If any of you have any other suggestions or thoughts on what has worked for you,

let us know in the comments below.

So our next question comes from Wayne Goh Productions,

who actually mentioned that last week we talked about how the really weird parts about the

bathroom stalls in the US have gaps.

They said that the bathroom stall doors, I believe, are for mopping and ventilation.

I hear you, but like if you go to like a bathroom in Japan, there's no gap.

There's no anything that doesn't smell bad and it's way cleaner than any bathroom I've

ever been at in the United States.

It's probably like a safety and security thing.

Maybe.

Yeah, I mean, how many times have you gone to the bathroom and then you accidentally

make eye contact with the person that's waiting to use the restroom?

It's very uncomfortable.

But I appreciate the theory.

We don't need to talk about toilets today.

I could talk about this all day.

That was last week.

Okay, so Wayne Goh Production asks, can you explain Google Voice?

I've watched some videos, but they haven't been the best.

It looks like some people add Skype as well.

I don't think you need to add Skype.

Just looking for the best way to keep my number and still have two-factor verification,

which is a really important concept, especially also if you're doing full-time,

long-term traveling.

Yes.

Okay, so let's describe the problem first.

So you're from the United States or really from any country and you're traveling to

somewhere else and in that somewhere else, you need to receive SMS text messages.

For a phone number that is attached to everything in your life.

Yes, credit cards, bank account, your mortgage, your health records, anything else.

Your grandparents.

Yes.

So you need to receive these text messages and type in some six-digit code into whatever

website or other service that you're trying to get into.

But when you're traveling, you can't because you don't have access to that phone number

because it doesn't work in Japan or in Europe or wherever else you happen to be.

Unless you plan to take your AT&T or T-Mobile plan and phone number and make it international,

which is very, very pricey, especially if you're doing long-term travel.

So that is one possible solution.

And I think that that works just fine if you're just going on a two-week trip.

If you're going on two-weeker, maybe don't go through all this riff-raff of trying to

move your number to a new service, just pay the ridiculous surcharge that AT&T gives you

of $10 to $20 per day and just turn on the international plan and then you'll be able

to get and receive these text messages.

And it'll be just like you're at home.

Google Fi also used to be a good option for this as well.

That's what I used to use.

It got really expensive.

It got really expensive.

And if you're away from home for more than a couple months and using data,

they will just straight up shut down the service from you.

And it makes it really, really hard because you're in another country and they

need to somehow negotiate moving your number to some other service.

It's not great.

It used to be a really great plan for flexible long-term travelers like us where you could

use Google Fi abroad and pay, I think it was $10 a gig and still get all your text messages.

But after I think six months or three months of them noticing that I wasn't using my phone

number at all in the US, they were like, no, this is not what it's for.

Even though we thought this is exactly what it's for.

Because that is exactly what it's for.

Okay.

So that's the problem.

Right.

The problem is you're traveling to another country and you need to keep getting these

text messages so that we can log into your various banks or credit cards or whatever.

One possible solution is pay your current cell phone provider a gazillion dollars

to get access internationally.

That begs the question, how do you solve it for longer term continuous travel?

Or just becoming a more digital nomad where you're permanently in another country.

But you want to keep your home.

But you want to keep your US phone number.

Your US phone number.

Right.

So the best answer for this that I've found so far is Google Voice.

This is a free service provided by Google that allows you to take your phone number

and transfer it into an app.

And by that, I mean, literally, you take the phone number that you would have

through AT interior through Verizon or whatever else and you transfer it and you transfer it

into this app on Google Voice.

And then this app, no matter if you're connected to Wi-Fi or a data connection or a cell phone

provider, even if you don't have a cell phone provider at all, if you choose not to do that

and you just happen to be connected to Wi-Fi on your phone or on your laptop,

it will ring just like it's a phone and it'll receive text messages just like it's your phone.

And you can send text messages just like it's your phone.

It's pretty magical.

Asterisk when it works.

Yeah, it's a phone in an app.

And the way that this whole process works is before you leave on your trip,

probably a couple of weeks before you leave on your trip because it takes a minute to do this,

is you would call up your current cell phone provider and you would say,

hey, I need to transfer my phone number somewhere else.

And when you do this, your cell phone provider is going to say, great,

just know that as soon as you transfer it, we are going to be canceling your account

and closing it down.

And then you're like, great, that's what I want to have happen.

Once you get the information that they give you,

which will normally be like an account number and a pin,

you're going to take that over to Google Voice and you're going to say,

sign me up and I want to transfer my phone number in.

It does cost $20 one time to do this just to just let you know.

It's not totally free free.

It's just mostly free.

So then once you do that and you click next a bunch of time and transfer your phone number

into Google Voice, which takes a couple of days to do,

then your phone number will ring on this app and on the Google Voice website

instead of directly on your phone, which basically, I mean,

it works just like your typical phone.

You just won't be using like, let's say you have an iPhone,

you won't be using your iMessage app or your phone app that comes with the Apple

phone. You'll be using the Google Voice phone.

But I think you, you met.

So there's one important step before you do all of that.

Okay.

And the first, very first, most important step before you like call your plan to tell them

this or even try, you know, this route is to check with Google Voice to see if your phone

can even be ported because there are for some reason, certain area code,

certain phone numbers that cannot be ported to Google Voice.

So my phone number, for example, before we left for our trip,

could not be ported to Google Voice.

No matter how many times I check, maybe I thought maybe over a year or course of a few months,

Google Voice would be able to port that number.

But for whatever reason, my area code was never able to be ported to Google Voice.

So I could not use this service at all.

Yeah.

But what you could have done is just get a brand new phone number,

which is what you ended up doing.

And then you just, you get that literally from Google Voice when you first sign up with them.

They just give you like some arbitrary phone number from the area you're in.

And then you would just have to go to all your banks and credit cards.

Right.

And change all of them to point at this new phone number that you got.

It is a whole rigmarole, I would say, but that's the very first step is to say like,

do I want to keep the number that I've had for 20, 30 plus years that's attached to my identity?

Right.

And if so, let me see, does Google Voice first allow me to even change that?

If so, then follow the steps that you just laid out.

And it's pretty easy and seamless.

Like it worked out for you.

And I think you use that primarily now.

Google Voice is your primary way to receive all text messages and phone calls.

Yeah.

I've had it for well over 10 years at this point, maybe even 15.

And it is a great service.

There are various other paid services that are like 10 to $15 per month that provide

roughly similar experiences.

But I think Google Voice is the best I've found so far out of this.

So now you still use Google Voice and I've since actually changed my number.

And I went back actually to a U.S. based plan.

Mint Mobile actually is a very affordable, you know, the plan that Ryan Reynolds,

CEO, your boyfriend, he, yeah, Mint Mobile is a really affordable way to get a phone plan.

And the thing that's awesome about it, and this is why I switched over,

is they have Wi-Fi capability, Wi-Fi calling capability,

which just means that when I'm abroad or anywhere and I don't have data.

So like Mint Mobile only works in the U.S., right?

So when I'm back at home, I can use my phone number as is, and it's no problem.

But when we're traveling, I get a data plan like UbiGee, AeroLo,

and I can use data as we're traveling about.

I won't get any text messages to my number unless I'm on Wi-Fi.

So when I'm on Wi-Fi, I can toggle my cell phone plan back to my original number,

and I'll get those SMS numbers, I'll get those SMS texts,

I'll get the phone calls that I need from my OG number.

Hopefully that's helpful.

It's a very complicated, every time we talk about this, my mind just whirls.

Yeah, and the major problem, the problem in this whole thing is these banks

unwilling to accept new technology.

That's all it is. They just like, all this stuff like authentication apps and

WhatsApp and all these other options, email has existed forever,

but they are just so insistent on keeping it in a text message,

even though it's such a stupid way to do it.

Tell us how you really feel.

There's so many feelings.

Okay, let's talk about health care.

Okay, oh boy, talk about real feelings.

Okay, I want to talk about my experience.

So tell the people where you just came back from and what happened.

And every excruciating detail.

Okay, so this journey began a couple of months ago when I was trying to navigate

the just preposterousness of the U.S.-based health care system,

which I think-

We won't go into many details.

But anybody who's used it, anyone who's in the U.S. and has tried

to use their health care system, they know what I'm talking about.

It's a challenge. It's definitely a challenge.

So I was trying to get some help.

I was trying to get checkups.

I was just trying to be more proactive with my health care.

Previous to this, I just kind of treated it like a break fix system.

I would only see the doctor when something was wrong.

If my arm was broken, that was like the last time that I really saw a doctor.

And that was like 20 years ago.

And I was trying to look at health care more of the way

that I see the rest of the world look at it, which is like,

you go to the doctor when you're healthy and you say like,

okay, take a look at me.

I'm healthy right now.

Tell me how I can stay that way.

Whereas in the U.S., I think generally our look at it is like,

oh God, I'm sick and things are bad.

Please fix me.

And I think that those two viewpoints,

I think I more gravitate towards the like,

I'm healthy right now.

Please keep me healthy.

Because that means that I don't have to get super sick

before I see the doctor.

But trying to do that in the United States is a challenge in its own.

The next available checkup appointment, four months away.

So I'm just kind of stuck here.

I'm like, okay, but like, I really do want to check up.

So what do I do?

So then I started looking online of the places

that we were traveling to.

And it turns out that this is a whole industry here in Thailand,

a massive industry, not just in Thailand,

but all across the world.

Korea, Japan.

Huge industry.

Medical tourism is the name of it.

And the thing that I signed up for at Bangkok hospitals

after doing much searching was just the everything checkup.

And they have multiple levels of this thing.

And they name it cool things like executive checkup

or like advanced super checkup and things like that.

And they do have like, you look at their website,

they have things for like male, female, like specific,

what you need, how old you are, which I appreciate, right?

Like not every 25 year old needs to get their prostate checks.

But it is very fascinating to see that this even exists here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's such a big deal.

There were so many people in there doing the same thing.

I think I just also want to say, before we also delve into this,

to say one, we're not sponsored by any of this.

Of course not.

This is mostly just us wanting to share our experiences.

Especially after last week when we talked about,

you know, when we talked about like the differences

and what people noticed when they traveled abroad

versus where they were in their home country

and health care was big for us.

Yeah.

And two, we want to say, you know, obviously this,

this is a very, I think, you know, you can talk more about it,

but I think your checkup was a very,

I don't even want to use the word benign,

but just like a very like normal preventative health care thing.

We don't know what it's like to get treatment.

We know medical tourism covers a broad range of things

like surgery, cancer, cosmetic surgery,

all these different things that we can't speak to.

This is just, yeah, I just want to caveat there.

Yeah, yeah.

So basically everything was fine.

I didn't really have any specific reason to do that.

I've just, I don't think I've ever really had

a primary care physician in my entire life.

At least my entire adult life.

Pediatrician.

Yeah, I had a pediatrician.

And I think that was the last time because I treated

this system as like something that you never use.

Like in the United States, I treated to health care

as something you only use as the very last resort.

I think I read an NPR article recently

about how medical debt,

like people going into debt because of medical reasons

is like a very unique specific to certain countries,

i.e. the U.S. thing.

And I never thought about that concept

that like people can go into debt for catastrophes.

You assume that like insurance and having employment

with an employer who offers health insurance will help you,

but it's, yeah.

Anyway, we won't go into that

because it feels like a problem

that I just can't think about now.

Let's talk about your experience.

Walk us through what it was like to walk in

and make this appointment.

Okay, so after looking at all the various packages,

I just was like, just give me the everything.

Give me the whole thing for my age range

that I would need, right?

Like I didn't want to do too many outrageous things

but a medium amount of outrageous things.

The thing I signed up for was 11,000 bottles,

like $330.

And I think when you sent this list to me,

I will say the differences between us is really funny.

Like Josh is all about just getting all the information,

Josh is all about getting all the information

as much as possible, high value.

It's worth it.

And for me, I'm like the cautious.

Well, like don't open Pandora's box.

Like you don't need an abdominal ultrasound at your age.

Like I was going through all these things

where like why would they do this?

Why would they do this?

That's not like, that's not proven to be it.

Anyway.

I got to know what's in that Pandora's box.

There's too, there's many different approaches to this.

Here's what you get for $330 US.

Let me just start with this list here.

Okay. So you get your vital signs.

You get a BMI test, which they did with like the cool

like vibrato egg chair thing.

Oh.

The ones that they normally use for like athletes

to help them figure out like a very accurate BMI.

So. You're an athlete.

Sure.

And then you get an ice screening, hearing screening.

I thought you were going to say ice cream.

Ice cream, delicious ice cream.

And then if you're a woman, you would get a pap smear.

And then you get a blood test.

And they did a lot of blood tests.

So complete blood count, sugar profile, fasting,

lipid profile, kidney, uric acid, liver function test,

thyroid test.

And they check for any tumor markers.

And then they do another urinalysis.

And then you get a chest X-ray, ultrasound of your abdomen.

Check your bone density in EKG.

And the ankle brachial index,

which I'm still not 100% sure what that is.

And then not only that,

but they give you a checkup report book,

which I have right here, checkup report book.

All I did is I sent them an email and I just said,

hey, I'm interested in your advanced checkup.

And I'm going to be there today,

which is when my scheduling was.

And they said, okay, just send us a copy of your passport

and you'll be scheduled.

And that's it.

They didn't require premon up front or anything like that.

That's nice.

And the nice thing about it,

and probably the biggest reason why you,

why it felt like I could sign up for this is I knew exactly

how much I was going to be spending when I walked in the door.

So you walk in the door into this big,

like almost grandiose, palatial, feeling hospital.

It really felt like it was a tourist attraction

at some point that then got turned into a hospital.

It was like, yeah, it was crazy.

Then they send you up to wherever you're going to do

all these tests up a couple of floors.

And the moment that I walked in,

they were like, oh, you're here.

Hey, all right, let's get started.

Like instantly there was no waiting.

There was nothing.

It was just walking in and they're like, let's go.

Are you ready?

Because we're ready.

Let's get this thing done.

And the efficiency of this was just insane

in comparison to what I've experienced

any other time in my life.

Like within a 10 minute period of me walking in the door,

I had already gotten a chest x-ray.

They had already taken blood out of me.

They had given me a food coupon, which I would use later.

They had already taken my BMI.

They had weighed me.

What else did they do?

There was a lot.

Ultrasound?

Oh, yeah.

They had ultrasound my abdomen.

I had changed in and out of clothes two times.

And I had peed in a cup for the urinalysis.

And I think a couple more things

that I can't even think of,

but literally within 10 minutes,

all of these various tests were done basically immediately.

And it was just me being shuttled from room to room to room.

It would be like it was so fast and so efficient.

And I just love that.

I knew what I wanted.

And I knew the type of thing that I wanted.

And they were just really happy to provide that thing.

And they weren't there the whole time questioning my choices.

They were just there to provide the thing

that I knew that I wanted.

And information about it.

Did they provide any pre-test counseling

or post-test counseling about it?

No, because they knew that I had signed up

for this thing on purpose, right?

So I had-

Yeah, but did they explain like, I don't know,

what an AFP test is or like what the EKG could show?

I could have asked.

I could have asked and they would have answered.

But I was just more than happy to just keep this train rolling.

Because we were like-

Yeah, so fascinating.

All I wanted them to do was just like,

check the whole thing out, my whole body,

and just be like, how are we doing?

How is the body doing?

That's the question that I wanted answered.

I didn't want this like little piecemeal,

like check this one thing.

And then if something else breaks and go and check that,

I just wanted them to do a full system scan.

That's so fascinating.

Like an antivirus software, but for my body.

That's what I wanted.

That's what I wanted.

And like the person in me, like when I hear that,

I cringe a little bit and I'm like, oh, but you just like,

I don't know, the healthcare provider me thinks like,

but there's so much information that's not useful

or that can be misinterpreted

or should be interpreted a little bit more clearly.

But I get it.

I get-

I didn't want any hand-holding.

I know.

Zero, I just wanted it done.

I wanted a system check and I wanted a pass slash fail.

That's what I wanted.

I didn't care.

I mean, I guess the nuance might have been important,

but he did provide that later.

They did explain what all the test results meant

and why they did them later.

The doctor did that after we did all this stuff.

So that did eventually happen.

Because I do think there's like some,

I don't know that some of the concerns

about like tests like these,

like you just sometimes can come up with information

that you weren't prepared for

or you get information

that you just don't even know what to do with it.

And some people misinterpret it to be like,

oh, no virus is found.

I'm good.

I'm good forever.

You know, like there's,

so there is some of this like interpretation

that needs to happen, some nuance that needs to happen,

not so black and white as pass or fail.

But it was still more information about myself.

Totally.

Than I've ever had in my life.

I agree.

And probably would ever get again.

I know.

There are totally, I get it.

There's so many people and you included

that find that more information is better.

And I think that information is empowering.

I think there's just a part of me

that always hopes that that information comes

with that like the education, the information,

the expertise that a lot of these providers have.

Yeah.

I wanted a bunch of stats.

That's what I paid for.

And that's what I got was a bunch of that.

Okay.

So they shuttle me from room to room,

doing the X-ray, doing the ultrasound,

doing the blood draw, and then a different blood draw.

And then they took 12 vials total.

There was a ton for this particular one.

Peat and cup, did all the other,

did everything that needed to be done.

They also did like physical examinations as well.

Do they do like a full skin body exam?

No.

So I could have paid more for that,

but I didn't for this one,

but that would have been like $40 more or something like that.

So there was a ton of tests and all of it happened so fast.

The efficiency of it was astounding.

Just astounding.

So I get through all these tests

and they give me a food coupon.

They literally bought,

they bought my lunch.

But tell the people what you got for lunch.

To celebrate my potential focus on health,

I went and got two burgers from burgers

and a large fry and a coke.

When you showed me the coupon,

the things on the coupon were like Starbucks,

Dunkin Donuts and Burger King.

I was like, something's wrong with this picture.

Right.

But still out of this whole deal,

I got a hamburger,

got a hamburger out of this whole thing

in addition to all the other tests

and awesome stuff that happened.

So okay, so we finished that

and they send me off after all these tests

and it was just a whirlwind.

Like I have never received so much care.

I was just blown away

because there was no wait time for any of it.

I mean, it was a busy hospital

and people were moving constantly

but it felt like they had this system

so down pat for everyone in the hospital

and there were tons of people there

for tons of different reasons.

It wasn't just expats doing this one,

like give me the everything checkup.

There were lots of local people here

also in the hospital

and there were lots of people there

for any reason that you do go to a hospital.

So yeah, it just felt like

they just had the system so down pat

and because they don't have to ever check

to see if it's okay to do something

with your insurance before they do it,

that it just happens.

All of it just happens

and they have no reason to slow down at all.

They just do it as fast.

I was actually the reason that it went slower.

This whole thing would have been done in five minutes

had I been able to change my clothes fast.

Or speak Thai.

Or speak Thai, yeah.

Yeah, and it was so wrapping.

Was everything in English?

Yeah, everything was in English from front to back.

Whole thing.

I probably interacted with like 30 different people

in a 20 minute period.

That is incredible.

They sent me across the street

to give me my free lunch,

which is just really the icing on the cake

for me of this whole thing that I got Burger King.

So I eat 15 minutes later,

they call me up and they say,

your results are ready.

And I was like, what?

Like I was expecting it to take weeks.

They call me to say your results are ready,

come on back.

So I walk back and then I see a doctor

and I get a half hour consultation with him

as he goes through all these different results,

told me exactly what I needed to do,

which basically narrowed down to hey, lose some weight,

which was basically the result of the end,

which was something that I already knew,

but it was really nice to hear that like nothing bad was going on.

I got to check up when I was healthy.

And at the end of it,

it was just like here's like the four things

you got to do to stay healthy.

So just do those things.

I also got tons of stats

and tons of other information about myself.

That's pretty amazing.

They gave you, they sent you home

with the medical records too.

So that way, if you do find a primary care physician,

which maybe you should, you can share this with them.

It's a checkup.

I don't know why this is so novel to me,

but it was like mind blowing to get like a health report

for my own body.

No, that's true.

And then be able to understand like,

hey, here's a couple of things you need to do

that are good preventative care for yourself,

to take care of yourself.

And here's a couple like problems

that you should probably fix right away.

That's never happened.

Because most of the time

when you schedule an appointment

to see a doctor or provider,

they ask you kind of...

What are you here for?

The first question is what's wrong?

Yeah, what are you here for?

What's wrong?

What are your symptoms?

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's never just, oh, I'm here to see what's going on with this.

It's like I'm broken and I need this one thing fixed.

And I just, I had never experienced healthcare

like that.

And it was just so cool of an experience

and so efficient.

Just to see how well healthcare can really be run.

I'm sure there's so many things that we can't see

as tourists and as visitors that come

for like these appointments

or these small slivers of moments,

you know, for these kinds of exams.

But it is incredible.

I mean, even you talking about this just now,

like I was thinking about what it was two years ago

that we were here.

And this was at a time when, you know,

COVID was still happening

and vaccines were very much being provided.

And we were traveling at the time

when there was a recommendation for people

to get like their second or maybe even second

or maybe even third vaccine.

And there was this question of like,

well, should we go home and try to get it?

Maybe there will be a wait list.

We'll even be able to come back out

and finish our travels if we get it.

And we just happened upon,

like we were taking a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok,

I think, and we happened upon the largest train station

and there were loads, like hundreds of thousands of people.

Maybe even a hundred thousand.

Maybe even a hundred thousand people there.

And they were just vaccinating people

and they were just providing these vaccines.

And we were just, you know, travelers that were like,

we don't live here, but is this available for people?

Is this available for people that don't live here?

And they said, totally, come in, show us your passport,

show us your vaccine cards.

And they just got us in line and it was so efficient.

I think they vaccinated thousands of people that day.

It was just like, you get in a line,

you fill out the paperwork and it was so accommodating.

The scope and the scale of it was so impressive.

And we just, and it was just at a train station.

So we literally just hopped off the train,

got vaccinated within an hour,

and then went to our hotel.

I mean, again, like I don't think we know

the complete nuances of what it's like to live here

and what it's like to live here and be from Thailand

and be from Bangkok and get health care.

But that experience helped me see,

like there are so many ways to do things.

And it kind of highlights what we talked about last week,

which is traveling opens your eyes to the ways

that different countries and cultures approach things

that we could use.

For sure.

Yeah.

For sure.

Yeah.

And I think, I don't know, talking about this,

like you might be listening to this

and depending on how your experience has been

with health care and where you're from,

you might be like, that sounds crazy

that you wouldn't receive that back at home.

Or you might be like, I totally get that.

I totally feel that.

Or you might feel like I would never do that

because you're, you know, you have what you need,

which is awesome.

Yeah.

But I would say for this being my first real experience,

well, not really.

For this being my first real checkup in forever,

I thought this was amazing.

I thought this was just incredible.

And what a cool service to offer for people out there.

After we started talking about this,

we kind of delved a little bit deeper

into the whole world of medical tourism.

I mean, I think when you read in the news

about medical tourism, it's usually, there are,

there obviously are always going to be

some bad, horrific experiences that happen for tourists

that go to another country to get a procedure done.

There are certainly risks for sure.

But I think the news don't always highlight

the things that are really, really great

about healthcare systems abroad as well.

Yeah, 100%.

I've never felt so cared for in like a medical setting before

as I did today.

Like everyone was like very focused, very kind,

taking their time, even though they were obviously

doing it as fast as they possibly could.

But it just felt like they were so focused

on like my health and well-being

and like getting to these results as fast as they could.

So that way the doctor could like analyze them

and then tell me what needed to be done

that I just felt really taken care of throughout

the entire process.

And I felt like I got way more than I paid for.

I don't think we mean to drag on about the U.S.

healthcare system.

It's just the only thing I have to compare

what I just experienced to.

You know, like it's the only thing I really know.

And I don't think we mean to make sweeping generalizations

about all clinics or all providers.

Obviously, we know a lot of amazing providers

in amazing clinics and every situation is so different.

But I think what, I don't know if anything,

I feel like traveling has done is just open my eyes

to the possibility that like there are so many

other cool ways to do things, including healthcare.

Yeah, I had a great time getting poked and prodded all day.

And eating the health food that is Burger King.

I don't know, I thought sharing this experience

would be kind of interesting.

We would love to hear your perspective out there

if any of you guys have done medical tourism,

good or bad.

I would love to have this started conversation

of what this felt like.

I obviously had a very positive experience today.

I'm sure other people have had different experiences.

Yeah.

That is it for today's episode on medical tourism,

Google Voice, and the intricacies of

faking out countries to let you into them.

So I hope you enjoyed this one.

We will see you next week.

Bye.